Joel Edgerton's "Boy Erased" is unique right up until it isn't

Rating: 2.5/4“Boy Erased” is the film adaptation of the memoir of Garrard Conley, a man who was forced to undergo conversion therapy as a teenager. In the movie, Jared Eamons (Lucas Hedges) is sent to a conversion therapy program called The Refuge Program after he admits to his Southern Baptist family that he thinks he might be gay. The storyline switches between Jared’s past life in college and the present, where he is battling his parents over the therapy on top of battling the Refuge Program itself.The movie had every ingredient necessary to win an Oscar. With a star-studded cast including Academy Award winners Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, and Hedges, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor in 2016, the film promised a high quality production. But despite all the praises that I was ready to sing going into the theater, I left wondering how it was possible to make a movie too short and too long all at once. There are plotlines that are started and never finished, and lingering looks accompanied by music which suggest that they will be important later on that the story never returns to. The script is powerful for most of the movie, and writer-director-star Joel Edgerton even managed to sprinkle in some one-liners that had the entire theater laughing. The problems come at the end, when the otherwise original script fell back on the cliches often used in LGBT movies. There is also an epilogue that takes up a lot of time that could have been used to fill plot holes in the main part of the movie; they seem to have been so concerned about wrapping everything up with a bow that they forgot to use the tape.That said, the actors are what really save the film. Crowe plays Jared’s father, the owner of a car dealership who is on his way to becoming a Baptist minister, and Kidman plays the protective mother who stays with her son while he is going through the program. Their portrayals mirror the way Conley talks about his parents in the original memoir. The goal is not to demonize parents who send their children to conversion programs, but to help people see that there is more to gain in education than ostracism. On another level, Edgerton plays Victor Sykes, head of the Refuge Program. He does a really good job of playing the antagonist, making sure the audience sees him as a despicable character from the moment he appears on screen. These actors all give extremely powerful performances that almost help viewers forget about the weak points of the film.Conversion therapy is still legal in 36 states despite the fact that it has been 45 years since the American Psychological Association and the American Medical Association said it does more harm than good. Even though this movie has unfulfilled potential, it sends a very important message that should be seen by everyone.